Season Five: Siberian Recurrence
by EYEofXANA
Summary: Everyone has a backup plan, even XANA. The stakes are higher as our heroes encounter an entirely new, yet familiar enemy as they try to rid the world of danger. Literally. Between Kplus and T for language & thematic elements.
1. Prologue: The Recurrence

_Disclaimer: I am not affiliated in any way with Code Lyoko nor Moonscoop._

('o)

Prologue: The Recurrence

"Well, this is it," says my partner, looking out at the view. I finally catch up to him and sit down on a boulder to catch my breath. "What is it, Fjodor?" he asks me.

"You're not even the least bit tired?" I ask. I conclude that I can't catch my breath anymore because I can clearly see it spewing out of my mouth like a steam engine's smokestack. I want to wipe the sweat away from my forehead, but my parka is too thick to allow me to move my arms even a decimeter.

"Wild Russia is such a beautiful place," he says, pretending not to hear me. He looks up at the cloudless sky and down at the green valley below him.

"Says the two men from Croatia," I say.

Gavrie jumps down from the vantage point to where I am sitting. "Will you lighten up? Getting assigned to tasks like these doesn't happen very often."

"_Right," _I think to myself, _"Being assigned to a station in the coldest place in the Northern Hemisphere."_

"Come on," says Gavrie. "Up. You know what we're here for."

I stand up and brush myself off, turning around, forgetting that we have reached our destination already.

"Will you look at that!" he says quietly. Before us is a huge campus of chrome – a sort of laboratory for those scientists that like to keep things top secret (if you know what I mean). To the right is a huge satellite, probably used for telecommunications. There is also a large observatory dome atop the main building. As neat as it was, it still looks like no one has been in there for years.

"Come on, Fjodor!" He takes off his wool cap, revealing his head full of red hair, and races across the permafrost to the laboratory. As always, I try my best to keep up with him. He stops by a medium-sized post. "Union Base," he reads. "Sakha Republic, Russia. We made it!" He hits a switch on the outside wall with his right hand, opening the automated door. I follow him inside and shut the door behind me.

"So this is where we'll be spending the next few weeks, huh?" I exhale, looking around through the narrow hallways.

"Wow," says Gavrie, chuckling a little. "I've got to check this place out." I hear the sound of his fast-paced footsteps slowly dwindling behind me.

It turns out that this place is bigger on the inside than it is on the outside. There are many rooms in which one can study, observe, test, experiment, and more. After a couple of hours, we start to hike back to Tomtor Village.

------------------ ('o)

"Do you think there are any amazing secrets inside that laboratory?" my partner asks. Even though I'm sleeping on the bunk below, I can still tell Gavrie is still awake, hands resting behind his head.

"Nothing more than some old computer software and some broken-down machinery," say I, trying to fall asleep.

"Let's make a promise. Take this job as a sort of treasure hunt. If you find anything, you'll tell me about it. I'll keep the same promise."

"Only if it'll make you shut up."

"Sorry," he says defensively. "But on the serious side, would you get along with this proposition?"

I sigh. "Alright," I respond sincerely, but apprehensively. "We're going to be stuck here until summer anyway."

Gavrie rejoices and wishes me good night.

"Good night," I say back.

------------------ ('o)

After that, I wasn't sure what happened. I knew I fell asleep right away, but I wasn't sure what woke me up.

Days in Siberia are nothing compared to the coldness of the nights. Even though it was late spring, it was as cold as ever inside my sleeping bag. I kicked the top bunk to try to wake up Gavrie. I needed to ask him where he had stored the extra blankets. Then, I knew something was wrong. Nothing was kicking back. I sprung out of bed and looked around the cabin for my partner, but all traces of him had disappeared. There was only one place I knew he would go.

I put on extra gear and brought a lantern along with me. I opened the cabin door. Even though it wasn't snowing, the fierceness of the wind made it feel like a blizzard. I asked an elderly man who was walking around during that late hour if he had seen my partner. He only slightly remembered seeing a man dressed up like me heading east. Fear struck. I thanked the old man and headed east.

It's hard enough to walk around in the wilderness at night, but it's harder to walk around on an unsteady landscape with the wind picking up a random intervals. I saw the dim glow of some lights coming out of the laboratory windows. Thank God for the automatic doors – it would have been a burden to try to open the door against the wind.

I stepped inside the familiar hallway, now lit with very dim lights across the ground. A sound of metal hitting against the floor emanated from the left hallway, so I paced in that direction. Soon I found myself in an unfamiliar part of the laboratory. The lights were off, so the only thing I had to keep me company was my battery-powered lantern. I entered a long, narrow hallway, which seemed to have a large room at the end of it. I walked a couple of paces and felt something grab me and jerk me to the left.

"Shh!" shushed Gavrie.

"What are you doing here?!"

"I said 'Shhhh!'" It appeared that Gavrie was under some sort of pressure, like he was in panic, but in a more collective way.

"What's going on?!" I whispered.

"…They're here…" Gavrie's teeth chattered from cold and fear.

"Who's here?!"

Gavrie looked left and right to make sure no one was around (as if anyone else was _in_ that abandoned laboratory). He leaned in closer. "The robots," he whispered to me.

"What?!" I asked, trying to comprehend what my friend was trying to tell me.

Gavrie could tell that we were going nowhere with my 20 Questions and his two-word answers. "Look, I was really excited about the things we found in the laboratory this morning. I couldn't sleep, so I hiked over here to become familiar with some of the equipment. I think a messed around a bit too much and sort of…woke them up."

I was shocked. "How could you…"

"Shh!" Gavrie shoved me into the wall with him, stuffed his mitten into my mouth, and turned off my lantern. We both heard the robots getting closer and closer. From the corner of my eye, I could see a shadow being cast in the corridor that I was just in. Soon, a 10-foot tall, metal monster came into view. I wasn't sure which was more frightening: its four menacing, red eyes, or the futuristic-like cannon on its arm. It made a series of beeping noises and kept on walking until it was out of sight.

I pulled the mitten from my mouth. "It's gone," I whispered.

_PAHHHHH!!_

A huge, light red beam of light zipped past the two of us, which made a huge sound when colliding with the door at the end of the hall. The laser had made a popping noise when it came out of the cannon of the robot, which was now stalking towards us.

"Gavrie," I said, "I think we'd better RUN!" The two of us sprinted frantically down the hall, barely avoiding the lasers being shot at us by the wicked creature.

_PAHH! PAHHH!_

We ran further down. The door at the end of the hall had to be opened manually, and unfortunately, it swung away from the hallway. Like in the movies, I knew the fate of the good guys trying to stop the monsters from pushing their way in was not a good fate.

"Lock it!" I yelled as Gavrie shut the door behind him.

He fumbled with the door handle as I held the door shut. "Dammit! Where's the lock?" Another laser was shot, almost knocking me over as I tried to hold the door. Gavrie ran to the other side of me and pressed a button, locking the metal door in front of us. We turned around so that our backs leaned against it. As we caught our breath, hoping for the robot to give up, we got our first glimpse of the room we had stole away in.

It was a huge room, with wires scaling the walls up towards the ceiling. There were two rows of computers, with computer chairs that looked like toilet seats. The monitors and interface keyboards were shining a light blue, meaning that they were functioning.

"Gavrie, hold the door," I said and walked towards the nearest toilet-shaped computer chair.

"What?! I know you're as curious about these machines as I am, but this isn't the time!"

I played around with the keyboard and placed a finger on the touch mouse-pad. A button with a red dot appeared on the screen, along with some other icons. I clicked the red dot and looked at the tiny hole near the top of the monitor.

"Hello," I said confidently. "My name is Fjodor Izum."

When I finished the sentence, I started to hear loud thumping noises echoing throughout the room.

_PAHHHHH! PAHH! PAHHHHHHHHH!_

My partner yelled out, "They're back!"

_Finished 2/4/08_


	2. Give Me a Break: Part I

_Disclaimer: I am not affiliated in any way with Code Lyoko or Moonscoop._

**#96 - Give Me a Break: Part I**

Applause was heard from inside Kadic's gymnasium. A comfortable atmosphere was present as the warm summer night continued on.

"Anaïs Fichet," announced Principal Delmas into the microphone. The blonde in the formal black dress stepped up on stage and shook hands with the headmaster as he gave her the rolled-up certificate.

Parents in the back had their camcorders rolling as they watched their beloved children take the ceremonial walk. Some younger students were watching as well, particularly two male blondes and a girl with pink hair. A boy with a blue tie, who had just entered through the open gym doors, ran over to the empty seat next to one of the blondes and sat down.

"Dominic Gosselin," spoke the principal into the microphone as the audience continued the wave of applause.

"Hey, what took you?" whispered the blonde to the other boy.

"I couldn't decide which ones she would like." He placed the bouquet on his own lap, trying to catch his breath.

"Yumi Ishiyama," they heard. An oriental teenage girl dressed in a formal, black outfit made her way to the stage.

"Yeah, Yumi!" The two boys cheered, making her blush. She turned to the principal, took the diploma, and shook his hand firmly.

------------------------------------('o)

"Congratulations, Yumi!" A black-haired girl with a magenta dress walked up to Yumi and gave her a hug.

"Thanks, Sissi," said the taller girl cheerfully. "So are you staying for the dance?"

"Of course," Sissi said, putting her hands on her own hips. "I still don't get why the administration has an End of the Year Dance for all the students, and then they hold another one on the last day of school."

"It's for the graduating class, of course," answered Yumi.

"Yeah, but anyone can go. I mean, I'm just a ninth grader," rebuked Sissi, adjusting her bun. "I'm sure our other friends would want to stay, too, you know. Besides, this is a pretty small school for such a big gym."

Sissi and Yumi were glad that they had become so close to one another. Ever since they had known each other, they had been bitter enemies, until something happened that made them realize they had the potential to be the best of friends. Of course, if one asked Yumi how this happened, she would rather keep it a secret.

Two guys walked up to the two of them, the brunette holding a bouquet of flowers.

"Congratulations, Yumi," he said, handing her the flowers.

"Aww, thank you, Ulrich." She accepted them and gave him a hug.

Sissi's smile went away. "What is wrong with you, Ulrich?" she shouted in her squeaky voice. "I told you to get her roses, not pansies!"

"They're lovely," assured Yumi.

Sissi unconsciously tried to break up the moment. "So…Are you guys ready to party?" she screamed, throwing her hands up in the air.

"Hell yeah!" screamed the spiky-haired blonde. He looked at his bewildered friends. "Aren't you guys ready to party?" he asked, confused by their faces.

"Odd Della Robbia," pointed Ulrich, "look behind you." The blonde turned around to face a Japanese couple. Odd cleared his throat and stepped back a little.

The wife turned to face Yumi. "So do you want us to pick you up after you're done?"

"No, I can walk," responded Yumi.

"Okay," she said, walking away with her husband. "Make sure you kids don't have too much fun."

Odd looked at Sissi and shrugged. "Parents."

------------------------------------('o)

Sissi made her way to the recreation room, since she had nothing better to do. The recreation room at Kadic Middle School had everything a boarder needed to keep oneself occupied. There was a bookshelf of comics and magazines, a foosball table, and table tennis. Sissi was thankful that she was president of the rec room, for it had helped her raise money for the students to buy a refrigerator and an extra vending machine. There was also a television set and a comfy sofa, which was currently occupied.

Sissi sat next to the sleeping pink-haired girl with a maroon blouse, waking her up. "Hey, Aelita. Tired from last night?"

Aelita looked at her watch. "4:00 already?" She gave a yawn and looked up at Sissi. "Hi, Sissi. Yeah, I've been sleeping on and off all day. I guess I fell asleep when I was reading."

"What are you reading?" Sissi asked, curious.

"A book by Ernest Hemingway," responded Aelita, looking at the book that had fallen on the ground when she was woken up.

"No wonder you fell asleep."

"No, Sissi, it's a really good book. You should try reading some novels in your spare time." Aelita picked up her book, trying not to lose her page.

"Okay, then, you continue reading. Mind if I watch TV?"

"No, go ahead." Sissi found the remote control and clicked on the TV.

------------------------------------('o)

Aelita guessed she must have fallen asleep again, since she woke up having realized she was on the same page. The sun outside was beginning to set. Aelita looked up at the television screen, which was still on (since Sissi had fallen asleep right when the movie had started). The girl reached for the remote, but something on TV had caught her attention.

_We interrupt this program for some breaking news. _There was Ellen, at the news station, looking concerned and being ready to give her report. _Reports have come in of a peculiar robot attack in Northeast Russia. That's right, it's a science fiction movie gone wrong. Witnesses claim that they have no idea where the robots came from, as the robots attacked one of the desolate villages of rural Siberia. The violent and outlandish group was spotted a few weeks ago, but the news hadn't reached the authorities until earlier today. The Russian militia is scrambling to take care of the mess. international Departments of Intelligence are very concerned._

Aelita was shocked. She was about to wake up Sissi when she got a call on her cell phone.

"Aelita? Are you there?" said the male voice on the other line.

"Jeremy! Are you seeing what I'm seeing?"

"Yeah, I'm in my room on the computer right now. Robots, right? So strange."

"Well, let's not go and jump to conclusions. You remember what happened last time, right?"

"Yeah, we thought XANA was attacking the navy, but it was just a technical bug in the navy's computer system."

"Yes," responded Aelita. "Ever since we shut down the supercomputer, we keep thinking that XANA still exists, even though we know he's gone for good."

"Right," said Jeremy, watching the newscast.

_We've only obtained a couple of snapshots from the scene, and as you can see, it's not very pleasant._

The first image broadcasted was one of the military trying to cease the robots' attacks. The second image was a close-up of the robot. It appeared to be about 3 meters tall, and it was composed of steel plates. The humanoid robot had antennae for ears and six gleaming, red eyes.

"Okay, I take that back, Jeremy. This is the _real deal!_"

"Right. Meet you at the factory as soon as I can." He hung up.

Without waking up Sissi, Aelita turned off the television and left the recreation room. The middle school had a park at the southern end, bordering a larger forest. With orange light from the sunset to guide her, Aelita ran down the grassy pathways, reaching a clearing in the woods. She walked over to the manhole in the center of the clearing and removed the lid. Acting as if she has done this many times, she descended down the rungs, closing the manhole above of her.

Down in the sewers were some old skateboards and scooters, which she and her friends placed there in case of an emergency. She selected a scooter and started down the cement path. Although it was very dark, Aelita could just see enough to find her way to the west end of the sewage path. There, she got off her scooter and climbed up to a second manhole. This had led her to a road near a bridge across a large river. Panting, Aelita ran across the bridge leading to the abandoned car factory. Using some loose wires hanging from the factory's ceiling, she swung down to the bottom floor, which was a landing for an old freight elevator.

"There you are, Aelita," said a blond-haired boy who was sitting by the elevator. He was a teen about 13 or 14, a little younger than Aelita. He had a brown turtleneck and a pair of khaki pants that looked a little too small for him. He motioned for Aelita to follow him to the elevator. Once inside, he walked over to the side of the elevator and pressed a large red button, closing the door. He pressed a few numbers on a keypad, causing the cab to descend. After a few seconds, the door opened to reveal a room with a tall, cylindrical machine.

"Jeremy, I thought we already stored the supercomputer away into the underground partition. What's it doing out in the open?" She looked at Jeremy, who was clearing his throat.

"Sorry, Aelita," he said uneasily. "I couldn't control myself. Ever since we shut it down, I started to think about the computer every day. It's been activated for over two years, and when we shut it down, I felt like I was obligated to…I just can't explain it,…but whenever I feel the urge, I sometimes come back to the factory and turn it back on."

"And how many times have you done this ever since we shut it down?" asked Aelita skeptically.

"Twice," admitted Jeremy. "The first time I turned on the supercomputer was the week after it was shut down, in order to transfer some files to my computer in the dormitory. The second time I turned it on was last week when I was testing out a new program.

"But you haven't encountered any problems, have you?"

"Nothing like this."

"So are you ready to turn it back on?"

"Only if you are."

Aelita thought for a second. "Well we have to do _something_ about that attack in Russia. And the others don't have to find out..."

"Alright, thanks Aelita," Jeremy said, relieved. He tensed up, though, as he walked over to the power switch. He pressed a button, and the switch was revealed behind a small compartment.

"Go ahead, Jeremy," said the girl.

With much hesitation, he lifted up the lever, and out of the teal-and-gold machine came a burst of cold wind, almost blowing back Jeremy and Aelita. They made their way up a ladder into the computer laboratory.

It was a square room about 7 meters across with a small dome in the center. The dome was starting to spew out a column of green light as the computer was loading up. Jeremy went over to the automatic chair by the dome so that he could see the triple-monitor interface that was connected to the supercomputer below him.

"You have a message," noticed Aelita, pointing to Jeremy's inbox.

"Strange…" he said, clicking on it, bringing up a folder. "It's a video file from the Union Base in Siberia!"

"Webcam, right?" asked Aelita. "It says here that it was taken in May. I suspect that it was sent unconsciously, since it doesn't look like it was addressed to us. Open it!"

Jeremy double-clicked it and a window popped up. There stood a man in a ski jacket who appeared to be in his early thirties, in the Siberian computer laboratory. He looked slightly scared but was speaking very calmly in Russian.

Another voice was heard off screen along with some loud banging noises. The man started to speak a little faster, looking a little more nervous. Suddenly, a loud crash was heard, and another man was seen in the background yelling, causing the first man to turn around. At that moment, something shot the second man right in the stomach, causing him to fall down.

"Gavrie! Gavrie!" shouted the first man, running over to him. Some screeching noises were heard, making the man run off screen towards the left. Two humongous robots were stalking him, rapidly firing lasers from the cannons attached to their left arms. Screaming was heard from the first man, as the second man was not moving at all. One of the robots walked over to the left, while the other one shot a laser at the camera, ending the video play.

Jeremy turned to Aelita. "We have a serious problem."

-('o)-

_Finished 2/24/08_


	3. Give Me a Break: Part II

_Disclaimer: I don't own Moonscoop or Code:Lyoko_

**#97 - Give Me a Break: Part II**

One of the robots walked over to the left, while the other one shot a laser at the camera, ending the video play.

Jeremy turned to Aelita. "We have a serious problem."

"But how could this be?" asked Aelita nervously. "We disabled those robots months ago with your multi-agent program."

"I remember it clearly, Aelita. I tried Teleporting you and Odd to XANA's supercomputer lab in Siberia to destroy the main computer, but luckily, I was able to do it myself with the program your father and I installed."

"But how do we know if this is XANA?"

"There's only one way to find out." Jeremy closed the video clip window and opened up another one. He began to search his desktop. "We have to launch a global superscan to see what the problem is in Russia." He starting typing away.

"Jeremy," interrupted Aelita. "If you're trying to do _that_, you're looking in the wrong configuration path." She pointed on Jeremy's monitor to an icon on the far right-hand side of the screen.

"I clicked that already, Aelita," said Jeremy. "But I just found out it's not there."

"Where is it located then?" questioned Aelita.

"I remember now!" Jeremy realized. He turned his chair towards her. "After I launched the XANA Destruction Program, I stored away all of the active programs so that the computer had time to recuperate since it had used up so much power."

"So it's in hibernation?"

"Exactly. I stored them in the safest place I thought possible. And that's in Sector Five. The only way to get them back is to go there and send them back to the local memory drive so I can access them."

"So what you're saying is that you need me to go to Lyoko to Sector Five, or Carthage, to retrieve all of the inactive programs so that we can restore the supercomputer?"

"That's right."

"Shouldn't be too hard." Just then, a loud beeping noise was coming out of the computer's speakers.

"Oh no," said Jeremy, when he realized the problem. "Someone has just sent an army of monsters into Sector Five! Is this really _XANA?_"

"I'll be quick!" said Aelita, running to the elevator. She shut the freight door and began her descent.

"I'm sending you directly into the Arena of Sector Five," said Jeremy over the speaker linking to the second room. Aelita was heading to the floor below the computer laboratory, above the floor of the main computer. It was a small room about the size of the laboratory, and circled around the center were three, 10-foot tall, metal pillars. In each of them was an opening, revealing a lit chamber small enough only for an adult to stand inside. Aelita stepped into one of them.

"I'm in, Jeremy."

"Alright. Transfer Aelita." He said and remotely closed Aelita's scanner. "Scanner Aelita." The light source inside the scanner descended and encircled Aelita with a ring of light. "Virtualization!" After a burst of wind, Aelita was virtualized and bonded with a digital code and was on her way to Lyoko.

--('o)

Aelita appeared in a dome-shaped, revolving room with blue walls. The sound of her feet dropping to the blue and white floor echoed against the whirr of the moving walls. She wore a pink, space-age, skin-tight outfit, which she thought looked pretty, even though it was just a virtual image.

"The walls are opening," Aelita said aloud, trying to contact Jeremy in the real world. He and she communicated through electrical impulses converted from sound.

"Just head on over to the Core Zone," he responded. The Core Zone made up most of Sector Five, which was a huge sphere of labyrinths. And since it was made up entirely of blue blocks, it was easy to get lost! It was Jeremy's job to direct Aelita where to go.

As Aelita reached a cavity, she stopped in her tracks.

"Oh my…God!" The room was almost full of monsters! She hid behind a tall, blue cube. "Jeremy, they've got to be after The Core! What do we do?"

"It's better that XANA doesn't know we're here yet, Aelita. Go back through the first corridor and head to the elevator." Without letting the monsters see her, Aelita dashed in the direction she came from. "Go to the submarine's hangar."

"But we have to go back there sometime, Jeremy," she said, walking a little slower. "I can't just hide in the hangar until XANA destroys The Core."

"You'll be safe there, Aelita," said Jeremy. "I have a plan."

--('o)

"Hiroki!" Yumi shouted through gritted teeth. She struggled to keep her bedroom door closed.

"But I just want to borrow your CDs for a while," said her eleven-year-old brother, trying to push his way into her room.

_Oh, summer, _Yumi thought. _It's going to be a drag without Lyoko. If only Hiroki wasn't a lock picker, I could lock my door and listen to my CDs in peace. _Just then, Yumi's cell phone began to ring. Unfortunately, it wasn't in Yumi's pocket. With much effort, Yumi stretched an arm over to her desk, keeping a foot at the door to keep Hiroki from getting in. She quickly grabbed the cell phone as her brother continued the banging. She took a look at the caller ID. _Isn't this the number of the supercomputer?, _she thought anxiously.

"Hello?" She spoke into the phone, not knowing what kind of answer to expect.

"Yumi? It's Jeremy."

"Jeremy?! Are you in the lab? What are you doing with the supercomputer _on _?!"

"No time to explain. Are you busy right now?"

"I'm kind of in the middle of something," said Yumi as she jerked forward every so often from Hiroki's shoves.

"Oh? Is someone in the room with you?"

"Not exactly," she responded. "But I'd much rather be somewhere else right now," she said with her temper rising.

"Okay, good," said the boy. "Repeat after me. Say: 'Return to the lab.'"

"Why?"

Just then, Hiroki gave Yumi a big shove from the other side of the door, but if wasn't enough for Yumi to give in. "Yumi!" called Hiroki from the hallway. "Who are you talking to? Is it Ulrich?" he asked in a teasing voice.

"Okay!" Yumi said to herself (and Jeremy). "**Return to the lab!**" Suddenly, Yumi's cell phone started to glow a bright green, encircling her in a celadon light.

From the hallway, Hiroki heard a blasting noise – something between a shock wave and a warping sound. The door gave in, and Hiroki fell backwards into Yumi's room. He stood up and looked around.

"Where did she go?" he said aloud. "Oh well. Now where does she keep her CDs?" he said to himself, scratching his head in partial confusion.

--('o)

Jeremy leaned to his right because the monitor was obscuring his view of the center of the room. A teal light shot down from somewhere up high, forming an image in the crater-shaped structure in the middle of floor. The light went away, revealing a lone Yumi, who was in a sitting position.

"H…How did I get here?" asked Yumi, bewildered.

Jeremy smiled. "It's a new program I'd like to call 'Return to the Lab.' I'm a genius, aren't I?"

"Is that Yumi?" called Aelita to Jeremy from Lyoko.

"It's Yumi," he assured. "Let me explain, Aelita," started Jeremy. "Remember that program I told you about that I was working on last week? I'm calling it 'Return to the Lab.' It's a sort of real-world version of Odd's former Teleportation."

"Jeremy," said Yumi as she walked to the monitor. "Aelita's on Lyoko. Could you please do some explaining?"

"Alright. First let me ring up Ulrich and Odd."

--('o)

Odd cheerfully stepped off of the airplane and took in some air. "Ahhhh, my home country!" He turned off his mp3 player and unzipped one of his bags. "You can just smell it! Right, Kiwi?" Kiwi, Odd's pinkish-gray terrier, barked in response. Wait one second. The pilot was right behind him. Odd nervously turned around with a quick motion. "Uh yeah," Odd pretended to speak into his earphone. "Yeah, right. I want you to buy some kiwis for me, Gram," he faked, chuckling at the pilot. Odd wheeled and ran off.

"Hey!" exclaimed the pilot. "That bag had a tail sticking out of it! That kid took an animal onto the plane! Guards! Get him!"

"Oh no," Odd said to himself, running across the airstrip. "Just when I thought this would be the first time I didn't get caught with Kiwi on board." Odd stopped and hid behind a few barrels, catching his breath. Suddenly, his phone rang.

"Hello?" Odd said, holding it up to his ear.

"Odd! Finally!" said the other line. "It took me three calls to reach you."

"Sorry, Jeremy. I had the phone off while the plane was in flight. What's up?"

"Something's wrong with Lyoko. I need you here at the factory. Return to the Lab."

"Jeremy! I'm out of the country right now! How am I going to **return to the lab?**" Odd's cell phone glowed green and he was gone in a flash.

"Hey! There's the mutt!" yelled a guard. He ran over to the barrels where Kiwi was crawling out of the luggage bag.

"But where did the kid go?" said the second guard.

The first guard picked up the little dog. "We must not stop until we find that purple kid!"

--('o)

"That's _much_ easier than going through Jim's Training Sessions," marked Yumi.

Odd was holding his cell phone and staring at Jeremy in awe. "H-h-how did you _do_ that?"

"Two years of studying 'Return to the Past,'" Jeremy responded. "See, I simply correlate your biodigital identities with your virtual profiles, and…"

"Let me guess. So it's like a real-world version of my former Teleportation," Odd paraphrased.

"Exactly."

"I hope there aren't any clones of me back at the airport."

"Don't worry. I tested it last week. But maybe cloning would be helpful; I could make some tweaks…"

"Need I remind you," cut in Ulrich, "that XANA is back. And he's planning to attack the Core of Lyoko." Ulrich had been teleported to the factory earlier.

"That's not right," contradicted Yumi. "Jeremy's not even sure it's XANA."

"Well, currently, there are Creepers in the Core Zone," said Aelita from Lyoko. "We have to plan a surprise attack before it makes its move."

"Okay," said Jeremy. "You three get to the scanners. We have to save Lyoko."

The three rushed to the lower level and prepared their journey into the virtual world.

"Transfer Yumi. Transfer Ulrich. Transfer Odd." The three scanners were closed. "Scanner Yumi. Scanner Ulrich. Scanner Odd. Virtualization!" A warm blast of wind was the signal that the three heroes were being sent to the digital world of Lyoko.

--('o)

The three of them appeared in the Arena, wearing their respective battle outfits. Ulrich's was yellow and brown. He had on a yellow headband and two katanas attached to his back. Yumi's burgundy outfit had an oriental touch, with a hint of sakura blossoms on her shoulder pads. Odd amusingly had a second pair of ears, which were purple and cat-like. He also had a purple tail and purple paws to complete it.

Once they were ready, they scurried out of the Arena.

"We have to avoid the Core Zone," said Yumi, leading the two boys to the Elevator, where they met Aelita.

"They haven't moved yet," said Jeremy over the speaker. "There's at least twenty of them. Any ideas of how to get rid of them?"

"Aelita's got one," said Ulrich.

"I'll be looking out for you guys," assured Jeremy. "Be careful."

--('o)

The Creepers took notice of the pink flash running across the room. The target! Fire away! Creepers opened their mouths, where they were charging their small laser cannons. One by one, they fired their beaming-red lasers at the pink girl. She didn't seem to lose any energy. The girl jogged passed two Creepers. Fire some _more!_

Unbeknownst to the monsters, Odd was running in from the entrance, firing ammo out of his dart gloves. The arrows struck three Creepers on the back, causing them to explode. Ulrich came in on cue, sprinting and jumping, destroying two more monsters atop a blue cube with his swords.

The pink girl was a decoy! There were Aelita and Yumi, already prepared to fight. With a snap of her fingers, Yumi summoned two Japanese fans. She threw them like discs at a couple of Creeboks ledged on a high wall, slicing them in two.

Swishing her arms, Aelita made her clone disappear. From her palms, Aelita charged up two pink, melon-sized spheres of energy. She threw them at the two nearest Creepers, producing an energy field and destroying them both.

In a couple of more minutes, the job was done. "Wow, you guys," complimented Jeremy. "You haven't been to Lyoko for almost half a year, and your performance is better than ever."

"Thanks, Einstein," acknowledged Odd.

"Alright, you guys," instructed Jeremy. "You have to head over to the Celestrial Dome. We need to recover all of the programs."

--('o)

The four arrived at the outer dome of Carthage, which was just a planet-sized sphere of blue blocks. They were standing on a plank-like ridge on the outer surface, where there was a floating interface.

"Okay, Aelita," said Jeremy. "Just look for the folder marked for Programs in Hibernation."

"I'm on it." Aelita loaded up the interface.

Odd turned to the other two. "Hey, do you think XANA…or whatever it is, is still trying to pull the plug on us?"

"You're right," agreed Ulrich. "It might send over some Mantas. We'd better get ready."

"Wow," said Aelita, touching and dragging the windows on the interface. "There are a lot of programs that have gone into hibernation. I'll just send them all to you." She touched the Send button and got a direct link to the computer back on Earth.

"Over there!" pointed Yumi. "The Mantas' nest!" She pointed to the outer "wall" that enclosed Carthage. Peaks started to form and protrude from the barrier. Blue-and-white manta rays started to hatch from their nests. Some began to fly out of their nest and towards the teens.

"They're coming at us!" yelled Odd, firing his Laser Arrows. The monster dodged it and changed directions.

"They're heading to The Core!" yelled Ulrich as he watched the five monsters fly away.

"We have to catch them by air," said Odd. "Jeremy! Send us the vehicles!"

"I can't do anything when I'm connected to Aelita's interface," replied Jeremy.

The three of them looked at Aelita. "I'm sorry. There are too many programs in this folder. I'm not sure which one contains your vehicles."

Yumi got frustrated. "What can we do?" She looked down at her boots.

"We can launch the anti-XANA program," suggested Ulrich. "It's the fastest way."

"Good idea," said Odd. "Aelita won't be able to catch up with them on her wings anyway. You up for it Einstein?"

"Right," said Jeremy, putting his headset down. He walked over to his backpack, which was lying lazily on the floor. Trying to be as efficient as possible, he took out an external drive and connected it to the computer. "You guys are lucky this is the only program I've backed up. I'm starting up the anti-XANA program," he said into the mike.

"Quickly, Jeremy!" called Aelita, pausing the program transfer.

"I'm launching it _now!_" Right after Jeremy pressed the Enter key, hundreds of glowing, white orbs spawned from Lyoko's Core. Moving as a group, the tiny orbs made their way out of the south pole of Carthage into the sector's atmosphere. They spread out in all different directions – some of them heading towards the five Mantas that were lingering around. In a flash, the orbs surrounded the flock, destroying the Mantas with little effort. The four heroes heard the sharp explosions to confirm their success.

"Alright, Aelita," said Jeremy. "Start up the link again."

--('o)

"So are you guys ready?" asked Jeremy as the group crouched over his chair to see the monitor. With the touch of a key, Jeremy launched the Global SuperScan. A window popped up revealing a rough spherical map of the Earth, used for tracing any unusual signs of digital intelligence (the procedure previously used to track XANA). "We found something," said Jeremy, excitedly. The tracer was homing in on a location in Northern Asia. "Yes, it's definitely coming from Siberia," he declared.

Another window popped up, displaying the data that was currently being obtained by the SuperScan.

**Viruses: **B.A.D.A. 1.1

"B.A.D.A.?" read Odd. "What's that?"

"Definitely XANA-related," inferred Yumi.

Jeremy watched the text scroll before him. "It's says here it stands for 'Backup Anomalous Distribution Agent.' I think I get it. This must be some sort of backup program XANA wrote before he died!"

"Whoa there," said Odd. "Let's not jump to any conclusions."

"It's the only virus from the Siberian laboratory – it _has_ to be from XANA," guessed Aelita.

"Wait. Anomalous? What does that mean?" questioned Ulrich.

"Anomalous means inconsistent, or out of the ordinary," defined Yumi.

"Wait a second," spoke up Odd. "Inconsistent. So does that mean that this 'backup program' isn't XANA?"

Jeremy read further on. "It's like XANA. But in some ways it appears to be different, too. If this thing really _is _XANA's backup program, I'm guessing that he made the program anomalous so that it wouldn't be detected."

"Right!" realized Aelita. "He must have installed it as a dormant program into the robots' software. That explains how they were activated by those two men in the video clip."

"What video clip?" asked Ulrich.

Odd interrupted, "So if this is _XANA_, and it's an inconsistent program, it means that it has all of XANA's programs, but it just doesn't know what to do with them, right?"

"Right!" said Yumi loudly. "That means it didn't know anything about Lyoko _or _us five until it found us just an hour ago!"

"Those Mantas weren't going after the Core after all," said Aelita.

"Well, the less information this 'B.A.D.A.' knows, the better," said Jeremy. "That'll be its disadvantage. I'll look into this. I really should send all of you back home now. It won't do any harm to…"

"Jeremy," interrupted Aelita, "the transmission from your SuperScan just stopped."

"Done already?" Jeremy turned to his monitor and looked at the data.

"No," Odd peered at the screen, "it looks like it just stopped."

Suddenly, a bright crimson insignia started to flash on the monitor's screen, accompanied by a beeping alarm noise.

"Shit!" cursed Odd, falling backwards.

"Uh oh," said Ulrich blatantly. "Looks like trouble."

"It's B.A.D.A.!" exclaimed Jeremy. "It's activating a tower on Lyoko!"

"Is there anything we can do?" Yumi shouted over the beeping.

"It's too early to go back to Lyoko!" said Aelita. "We won't be able to get back in!"

Just then, the beeping ceased. Jeremy began typing on his keyboard to look through the list of towers. The activated tower had been deactivated.

"Wow," stated Ulrich, "our new enemy is sure anomalous."

"What do you mean 'our new enemy?'" questioned Yumi, still shaken from the small disaster.

"You saw the sign, Yumi," said Ulrich. "It's definitely something that's a threat to us."

"Let's not jump to any conclusions until Jeremy's finished studying this 'B.A.D.A.,'" said Yumi. Ulrich was somewhat in a state of denial and doubt, so he turned to Jeremy.

"It's true," Jeremy said, supporting Yumi's idea. "For all we know, we can possibly turn this _bad_ virus into a _good_ one."

Odd let out a yawn. "Can we just get the hell out of this old factory? Jeremy will give us the heads up when he's done with his research. Now just teleport me back home, would ya?"

"Sorry, Odd," apologized Jeremy. "I have no control over telephone satellites."

"What?!"

"But I _do_ have control over time and space," he assured. "I can't teleport you back home, but the closest thing I've got is Return to the Past."

"Alright," said Yumi. "You guys, call my cell if you need me. I don't think you want to have to deal with my family members if they answer the house phone."

"We'll keep in touch," promised Aelita to Yumi and everyone else.

"Okay, you guys. Return to the past, now!" Jeremy finished typing the command and pressed the Enter key, launching the time-lapsing program. A column of intensely bright light was discharged from the dome in the center of the room, expanding and reflecting in all directions. In a fraction of a second, the light had engulfed the five kids.

--('o)

The return in time had brought Aelita to the instant when she was about to leave the recreation room with a sleeping Sissi on the long sofa. Aelita took a few seconds to orient herself after the time jump. When she saw Sissi, a flock of thoughts entered her mind.

The only thing that had brought Aelita and Sissi together was the fact that they had no secrets to hide. And now that there was the possibility for Aelita's secret to come back to her, there was the possibility of friendships to be broken once more. Aelita wished with all of her heart that BADA would not be a threat to her existence as a normal 13-year-old girl or to her solid friendships she has made to become that 13-year-old girl. All that could be done was to just wake Sissi up and…

"Oh, Sissi, you're awake?" noticed Aelita.

Sissi yawned with a wide, open mouth. "Dark already?" she asked sleepily.

"Not quite," said Aelita, looking outside at the twilight.

"Well, I think we both need some rest." Sissi stood up from the couch. "Let's just get back to the dorms."

"Umm, Sissi, could I ask you a question?"

"What is it, Aelita?"

"If anything comes in between us, we'll still be friends, right?"

"Dearest, Aelita," Sissi shook her head. "The only one thing I despise is when someone doesn't open up to me. This is why everyone complains I nag all the time." Aelita smiled to herself, thinking all the times Sissi has been naggy. "We'll be friends no matter what."

Aelita looked up and gave Sissi a smile of acknowledgment.

"Unless it's a boy, of course," added Sissi, "but that'll never happen."

Aelita giggled and followed Sissi out of the rec-room and out of her fears.

--('o)--

A/N: B.A.D.A. is pronounced like beta, the Greek letter. btw, the last scene is VERY symbolic/imminent


End file.
